


Purrfessional Help

by ineternity



Series: CATetonia: Therapy, not just for Time Lords. [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Attempted Therapy Session, Cats, Chameleon Arch, Cuddling, F/M, Fix It Fic, Fluff, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Shapeshifting, Suicide mention, Therapy Session, Trauma Recovery, cat!Master, very brief and tiny though and in a good context
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27496759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineternity/pseuds/ineternity
Summary: The Doctor tries to be the therapist the Master needs. Unfortunately, neither of them are very good at talking. Especially in cat form.(You came for cuddles and scritches and you shall receive)
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Series: CATetonia: Therapy, not just for Time Lords. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009314
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	Purrfessional Help

**Author's Note:**

> You asked for it.

The Doctor sighs at the small lump of fur curled on her lap.

It has been two weeks since the Master Chameleon Arched himself into a cat and she doesn’t quite know what to do with him. The process seems to be working though. Instead of the tired, broken man she is used to seeing, there is simply a creature that wants to be snuggled, petted and scritched behind the ears.

Today is their first therapy session.

“Koschei.” She says softly, shifting her knee slightly under his snoozing form

“Mrrrp.” He replies, tail swishing. The Doctor’s hearts break a bit when he looks up at her, eyes glossy.

 _This is a guilt trip._ She thinks. _And I am absolutely falling for it._

Where to start? How to talk to a cat about their crippling inferiority complex and recently attempted murder-suicide?

“How do you feel about… everything?” The Doctor stammers, trying as hard as possible to maintain eye contact. The Master blinks and continues to stare into her eyes.

When he doesn’t respond, she strokes a finger gently over the top of his head. To her exasperation, he begins to purr.

“This is serious. C’mon. We have to start fixing this.”

Koschei stops purring and appears to curl further in on himself.

“If you’d talk to me it’d help.” She tries. “Not talk- you know what I mean.”

He snorts- somehow still managing to sound cat-like.

“I need to know if you’re okay right now.”

The mass of fur below her seems to sigh and she feels him shift, grasping paws suddenly appearing on her legs in a wake up stretch.

“Talk to me Koschei?”

He straightens himself up, leaps from her lap and slinks along the floor to the opposite side of the library. The Doctor knows immediately, there is a whiteboard set and magnets nearby she had set up for this sort of thing, since the synapses in his cat brain aren’t compatible for telepathy.

The Master returns a moment later with the whiteboard held between his teeth and a bag of letters attached to his tail. She takes this as a positive sign, he is engaging with the process.

“Okay. I’ll ask you some things, you don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to.”

The cat blinks at her in what can only mean ‘Go on then’.

“Do you feel like you want to…hurt someone?”

Koschei flicks an ear, looking contemplatively at the ground before slowly pawing at one of the magnets.

 _No._ The magnet spells.

“Good.” She smiles.

“Do you want to talk to me, change back?”

The second answer is more hurried than the first. The Master’s paw lands quickly on the same magnet.

_No._

Okay.

“Do you still feel the same way about…” She trails off. His gaze fixes on hers expectantly. “About me being…” The Doctor can’t say it. Koschei’s eyes flit suddenly away and the sentence is left unfinished. Then, slowly he tips the bag of magnets onto the library floor and wades through the letters.

He fills the whiteboard up solemnly this time. She already knows what the words will be before they fully appear.

_I don’t want to talk about that._

The Doctor swallows down the knot in her throat. No. Of course. Stupid Doctor.

“I won’t but… one last question.” A slim smile. “Do you feel safe?” She says in a small voice, hands tugging lightly at the hem of her jumper.

The Master’s tail pauses mid-swoosh. The Doctor’s breath hitches as his body reanimates itself, a dark paw trailing slowly over to the pile and pulling out three letters.

_Yes._

A bit of water gets in her eye somehow. Where it came from, she doesn’t know, but all of a sudden she is sniffing away a tear.

On the floor below, the Master blinks slowly, long tail swishing side to side. The Doctor shoves a hand hurriedly across her eye. He feels _safe_.

“Do you want a cuddle?”

She doesn’t have to wait for the magnets this time, the Master has already jumped into her arms and is nuzzling his head against her chest. Of course, he’ll never admit to doing this later. That’s where the TARDIS internal cameras come in.

The Doctor smiles and crooks two fingers to stroke between his ears. A clump of brown fur sheds in her hand and she sprinkles it back over his head. He mrows softly and begins to purr again. Looking, the Doctor thinks, rather dapper in his new furry hat.

It’s going to be a long, lazy night.


End file.
